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The Way of Love
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Roger Ferlo
Apr/2007, 224 Pages, Paperback, 5.5 x 8.5
ISBN-13: 9781596270442
We hear about heaven and the supernatural far more often on late-night TV than in church; indeed, many Christians never hear eternity mentioned seriously from the pulpit.
This book of short, personal essays gathers the hopes and reflections of writers from theology, fiction, and poetry. The authors include Rick Moody, Nora Gallagher, Robert Orsi, Barbara Brown Taylor, Phyllis Tickle, Alan Jones, Maggie Robbins, Barbara Crafton, Cynthia Bourgeault and Susan Wheeler.
These writings, which mix autobiography, story-telling, and theological reflection, are so poignant and wide-ranging that we can all find ourselves in them and start telling our own stories about heaven.
Roger Ferlo is co-director of the Center for Lifelong Learning at Virginia Theological Seminary. Formerly rector of St. Luke-in-the-Fields, New York City, he has a Phd in English Literature from Yale University and is the author of Opening the Bible (The New Church's Teaching Series) and Sensing Scripture.
"This thoughtful, rewarding volume is recommended for Episcopal libraries and all others where there is easy acceptance of shared creative thought."—The Church and Synagogue Library Association
"Heaven is a thought provoking book without easy answers. The essays come from poets, therapists, pastors, novelists, teachers, and artists. In the end, the writers most often seem to agree with an idea in Peter Hawkins' essay, 'Astonish me O Lord, and let it be world without end.'"—The Living Church
"The wonderful variety of heavens represented in this volume is its greatest strength. It may be just the thing for a formal or informal group of people willing to engage the breadth of our tradition's teaching on the afterlife. It could certainly spark the kind of conversations that might continue until the 'last day.'"—Anglican Theological Review